Terrion Ware is coming off of a controversial loss to Tom Duquesnoy at UFC Fight Night London, a defeat that came by way of decision.
The bantamweight fighter had thought that he had the fight in the bag, but couldn’t have predicted what would happen when the scorecards were read.
“I mean, coming into the fight and going there (London), that’s one of the concerns (judges bias towards a fighter) that me and my coaches were concerned about. You know, being in his (Duquesnoy’s) backyard would get him a favor…get the benefit of the doubt if it were close. Our plans was to try and dominate the fight, overwhelm him in all the areas of the scoring criteria. To either finish or make it not close and at the end of the fight, to be 100% honest, I did not think it was that close. I thought I’d clearly won the fight, I could see round one being close…but I thought for sure that round two and round three…there was no way it was close. I was more than 100% sure that the judges would give me that fight when it ended, I was very surprised to say the least. When they read of that 30-27, I immediately raised my hand because like there was no way a judge gave him a 30-27. I just couldn’t believe it when they read off the scorecards. I went back into the locker room and I was just sitting there and thinking to myself ‘I don’t know man, did I get hit and was delusional?’ I experienced a different fought than what I thought was going on, immediately my phone started blowing up and I’m getting all these messages saying that I was robbed. Then I saw the final stats and I’m looking at the final stats, I couldn’t come up with any other solution other than I won. The stats didn’t show that it was close at all, I didn’t think it was that close…it was clear cut, I was shocked to say the least,” says Ware in an exclusive interview with Fightful’s James Lynch.
If one were to go by the post-fight stats for the encounter, it would seem like Ware was the obvious choice to win since he lead in four of the six major categories (ground control, total strikes, significant strikes & takedowns).
There may be a silver lining in this whole mess for Ware, which is that he’ll get another shot in the UFC.
“My manager Jason House, immediately after the fight (spoke with the UFC), he’s never done this…he’s never gone to complain about anything. He immediately went over to Sean Shelby and talked to him. My manager came back into the locker room and he said ‘it sucks…don’t worry about it, I talked to Sean, he thought you won and they’re (the UFC) going to bring you back.’ So that was a relief off of my shoulders and I got a chance to talk to Shelby as well and he apologized and told me that he thought I had won. They love having me and and they’re going to bring me back. That was a weight off my shoulders, but there is still a bitter taste in my mouth right now,” says Ware.
Although Ware says he is getting another shot in the organization, no word has been given yet as to when that night fight will come for the bantamweight.
